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Parenting in a foreign land: the lived experience of Taiwanese immigrants with disabled children in the United States

PARENTING IN A FOREIGN LAND: THE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF
TAIWANESE IMMIGRANTS WITH DISABLED CHILDREN IN THE UNITED
STATES
by
Yu-Ren Su
_________________________________________________________________________
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(OCCUPATIONAL SCIENCE)
August 2007
Copyright 2007 Yu-Ren Su

Objective. The aim of this dissertation is to understand the lived experiences and personal meaning of four Taiwanese immigrant families with children who have a disability and are living in the United States. Currently, there is a limited understanding of these experiences. My dissertation explores the full range of details of daily life and family history of the occupation of parenting from a cross-cultural perspective within the discipline of occupational science.; Method. There were four theoretical frameworks used in developing this research: occupational science, the social model of disability, ecocultural theory, and the phenomenology perspective. Strategies from phenomenology and grounded theory were chosen to design and conduct the research. In-depth interviews, participant observations and document reviews were used in the data collection. All interviews were audiotaped, transcribed and translated. A thematic coding method based on grounded theory was chosen to analyze data. Strategies to increase trustworthiness were implemented.; Result. Three major themes emerged from the data. They were: living with societal prejudice, managing everyday life, and constructing a better future. The finding showed that inaccessible environments and societal prejudice contributed to the family dysfunction and restricted parents from fully engaging in their roles. Even though parents encountered numerous challenges in their adopted country, they developed their own solutions through making extra effort, asking help from family members, negotiating with institutions, and using resources from family support groups, local agencies, and their faith community. Mothers shared their new understandings of meaning in their lives. Lastly, parents in my study described their ideal world for people with disability.; Conclusion. This study not only captures the parents' reflections on their present circumstances, but also reveals what the four families in my study thought about their past and future. Due to their own resilient abilities, the families in my study became expert caregivers in their adopted country. They provided opinions and suggestions about community settings, transition programs, and education about disability for nondisabled people in both Taiwan and the United States. The contribution of the study to the literature and directions for future and ongoing research topics are also discussed.

PARENTING IN A FOREIGN LAND: THE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF
TAIWANESE IMMIGRANTS WITH DISABLED CHILDREN IN THE UNITED
STATES
by
Yu-Ren Su
_________________________________________________________________________
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(OCCUPATIONAL SCIENCE)
August 2007
Copyright 2007 Yu-Ren Su